ECTS - European Community Course Credit Transfer System
University of Duisburg-Essen, Faculty of Medicine
Despite its brief history, the University of Duisburg-Essen has achieved a high profile in research. The medical institutions e.g. have achieved pioneering work with operations on the retina using light coagulation. In addition Essen has become an important centre for kidney, liver, heart, lung and bone marrow transplants. The medical faculty places emphasis especially on the areas cancer research as well as on the field of heart/ circulation research. Several special research areas, e.g. on the field of biomaterials, and a graduate college are evidence of successful work carried out by the medical faculty.
The university administration with its Academic Office for International Relations (AAA) lies north of Essen city centre (Universitätsstraße 2, 45117 Essen). From the clinical area of the university, the university administration can be reached with the tram line 17 in about ten minutes.
More and more Essen students are participating on exchange programmes: An exchange between Alicante and Essen started for the first time in 1987 as part of the Erasmus programme. In the following years this programme was expanded which was started by the directors of surgery in Essen and Alicante, the professors Eigler and Medrano. Barcelona, Strasbourg, Paris, Lille, Bratislava, Kosice, Budapest, Maastricht, Leuven, Siena, Aarhus have also become partners in this project. For an Erasmus intensive programme for transplant medicine in Spring 1993 there were around 200 foreign EC students in Essen, to learn about the chances and risks of these treatment possibilities. In addition since 1990 two to three students from Alicante and Essen in the preclinic section absolve their anatomy course at the respective partner university. Other exchange programmes exist in addition to the Erasmus projects, for example, with the universities in Nishniy Nowgerod (Russia) and Eskisehir (Turkey). In addition, there are close ties between the medical faculties in Essen, Peking and Wuhan (Peoples' Republic of China). For this reason there are many Chinese students in Essen, who complete their studies and do their PhD here. Since 1988 hundreds of students from Essen have participated in exchange programmes. Almost all of them regard their participation as an enrichment to their studies. These students are evidence that these programmes should be further extended.
Foreign students and young scientists also come to Essen because of the good reputation that this young faculty enjoys. Many scientists in this faculty achieve distinctions or are called to professor chairs in other faculties. Every year numerous symposiums, congresses, conferences and guest lectures take place at which scientists from Germany and abroad participate.
The medical faculty and the attached university clinics with their 4.800 employees are also an important economic factor for a city like Essen. The tasks in teaching, research and medical care are carried out by about 110 academic teachers (professors, lecturers, etc.) and more than 700 further doctors, psychologists, biologists, chemists and physicists as well as about 1.500 care assistants.
In Essen and its surroundings there are well-equipped hospitals which act as academic teaching hospitals. They contribute to the good training of Essen medical students during clinical practice and the practical year.
In the 19th century Essen became a centre of the mining and steel industry. The Krupp firm grew with the expansion of the railway network in Germany and developed to one of the most important armament factories at the beginning of this century. After World War II, in which large areas of Essen were destroyed by bombs, the mining and steel industry soon became vital for the rebuilding of Essen and West Germany.
Even thirty years ago heavy industry determined the image of the city in which almost 750,000 people lived. In the 1960s industrial change began to present the Ruhr area with particularly difficult challenges. Today there are no more coal mines in Essen. Miners and steel works have therefore lost their traditional places of work. In the difficult economic restructuring process, which still has not been completed, the city has developed into a centre for service industries, administration, trade and trade fairs. More than two thirds of all employers work in these areas, ten per cent of the largest German companies are administrated from Essen. In 1958 Essen became the seat of the Ruhr bishop and in 1972 of a university .
Guests visiting Essen for the first time are always astonished to find how much green is to be found in the city, especially in the south of Essen. Twenty-six per cent of the city's area is taken up with landscape areas and nature-protected sections. The large green belt areas in the town and along the eight kilometre long Baldeney lake have a high value for relaxation and leisure. In addition Essen is an important cultural centre whose art exhibitions in the Folkwang museum and in the Villa Hügel attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year from the whole of Germany and abroad. The symphonic concerts of the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra in the Saalbau and the operas in the Aalto Theatre, which was opened in 1988, are also famous outside the region. In addition Essen offers spoken theatre in the Grillo Theatre in the city centre and on the numerous small stages whose plays often attract attention with their daringness. The sophisticated cultural entertainment and the large leisure possibilities contribute greatly to the attractiveness of this city. It is therefore hardly surprising that exchange students often come back to Essen after their studies because they enjoyed their stay here so much.